https://i.pinimg.com/originals/45/f1/4e/45f14eba51b9f3ccec9f912cb36cfcad.jpg
Richard E. Grant (Withnail, Retro Loki) in 'How to get Ahead in Advertizing'
Are we a little different from the general population when it comes to ads?
Can you empathise with me when I say,
• One, I really don't like adverts
and
• Two, I don't think ads 'work' on me
I think the last time I was almost tempted to buy something when presented with anything like an ad, was hearing @siggy47 speak about getting a Google Pixel. Sure, that's not really an 'advert' as such, but that's the closest I get to seeing any.
You see, other than the gentle 'ads' on SN that are boosted every hour, I don't see ads.
• Where I live, there's zero billboards - I really like it this way, believe me.
• I don't have a TV - therefore no ads every few minutes. When I visit my folks, I advance through the ads (or mute them - the ads, not my folks - but sometimes that's tempting...)
• I use an Android phone, and have for a number of years now. The very first thing I do is deGoogle them, add a firewall, F-droid, a VPN and set up a whitelist to filter out ads. I never see ads on my phone. Trackers - mostly squashed too.
Really, the only thing that I buy that isn't a necessity is... Bitcoin.
It'll obviously be no surprise to any of you out there to see that as there's no company behind it, there's no ads. Perhaps I'm living in a reverse consumption life - which in the 21st Century, is pretty strange...
I can't be alone out there in Stackerland™. It's almost like we've gone down some new, evolutionary branch.
If I'm not alone, maybe it's not so strange that we're attracted to what must be the only thing that doesn't strictly have ads.
I've always wondered what we stackers have as a common denominator between us (other than Bitcoin) maybe a strange relationship with advertizing is another.
Finally. Someone (@Bitman) that may believe me when I say I don't see or hear any ads. Or spam.
Pretty much the same setup: no TV, obsessive muting, blocking & skipping, single-use email addresses, etc. For well over 10 years at this point.
It does require effort to maintain though, if we're honest about it.
Sure I believe you.
I can't believe that we're the only ones here who live this way too.
With all of the tech native guys here I'd be very surprised if we weren't. What's the tech here for if we can't tweak it?
Back* when email spam started becoming a real problem, I was explaining to a friend my 'system' for blocking all spam. I'll never forget his response:
"That's quite neat", he said. "You could probably make good money selling your system to others. Except, how are you going to get the word out? By spamming people?"
*Probably around the same time Adam Back was working on his anti-spam system. And we all know where that got us.
That's a fun story.
Anything come about from your anti-spam system? You've got into game design now?
Other than me still using it, nothing came of it.
No. Not even a gamer myself. But that's a story for another day. :)
Looking forward to hearing it.
One more thing, most of us here are pretty good at detecting the ol' BS too...
There have been a couple that have actually made me want to buy a product before, but generally I don't find them to be useful at all.
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The ads that I see when someone shows me a video are pretty intolerable.
I used to be so shocked when I first saw them, now I just feign shock to give them a good ribbing.
I agree about SN ads. They hit just right.